Operation Ichigo

Operation Ichi-Go
Part of Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II
Japanese plan for Operation Ichi-Go
Date 19 April–31 December 1944 Location Henan, Hunan and Guangxi Result Japanese victory
Belligerents
Republic of China United States Army Air Forces	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
Tang Enbo Xue Yue Bai Chongxi	Shunroku Hata Yasuji Okamura Isamu Yokoyama
Strength
1,000,000	500,000 15,000 vehicles 6,000 artillery pieces 800 tanks 100,000 horses
Casualties and losses
310,000-480,000 casualties	~100,000 dead heavy materiel losses
500,000+ Chinese civilians

Operation Ichi-Go (一号作戦 Ichi-gō Sakusen, lit. "Operation Number One") was a campaign of a series of major battles between the Imperial Japanese Army forces and the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, fought from April to December 1944. It consisted of three separate battles in the Chinese provinces of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi.

These battles were the Japanese Operation Kogo or Battle of Central Henan, Operation Togo 1 or the Battle of Changheng, and Operation Togo 2 and Togo 3, or the Battle of Guilin-Liuzhou, respectively. The two primary goals of Ichi-go were to open a land route to French Indochina, and capture air bases in southeast China from which American bombers were attacking the Japanese homeland and shipping.

In Japanese the operation was also called Tairiku Datsū Sakusen (大陸打通作戦), or "Continent Cross-Through Operation", while the Chinese refer to it as the Battle of Henan-Hunan-Guangxi (simplified Chinese: 豫湘桂会战; traditional Chinese: 豫湘桂會戰; pinyin: Yù Xīang Guì Huìzhàn).

There were two phases to the operation. In the first phase, the Japanese secured the Pinghan Railway between Beijing and Wuhan; in the second, they displaced the US air forces stationed in Hunan province and reached the city of Liuzhou, near the border with Japanese-held Indochina. 17 divisions, including 500,000 men, 15,000 vehicles, 6,000 artillery pieces, 800 tanks and 100,000 horses participated in this operation.

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